


with the morning light

by minachandler



Series: wherever you run, I run with you [1]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Catholic Character, F/M, Morning After, Post-Coital Cuddling, Prayer, Religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 14:42:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18075341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minachandler/pseuds/minachandler
Summary: Set during the flashbacks of Daredevil 2x05. The morning after their first time, Elektra wakes to find Matthew greeting the morning with prayer.





	with the morning light

**Author's Note:**

> Okay! So I have spent the last few months getting into the Marvel Netflix verse and honestly it's been such a ride. Daredevil was the first show I watched after my friend nagged me for ages, lol, and I am now super invested in MattElektra. I didn't think I'd be writing something so soon, but here we are :) 
> 
> Thanks to Ell for reading this over for me and giving much-needed suggestions.

Elektra had always been a light sleeper.

She remembered Stick telling her that was a good thing, actually laughing gruffly when she'd woken to the sounds of his footsteps and had pressed a blade against his throat. Where most people would have been affronted, Stick was proud, impressed, even. 

(Elektra would never admit it to anyone, not even herself, but she needed his approval. At least, every now and then she did.)

It was that kind of base instinct, he had said, that made her ideal for the Chaste. She'd scoffed at the time when she heard the name, telling him she thought it sounded like some kind of cult of celibacy.

“Ellie, I don't give a shit who you decide to sleep with. For once I agree with you. It's a stupid name. Almost as stupid as the Hand. But that doesn't change the fact that we have to defeat them. Just get the job done and we're good.”

And they had been. Elektra was efficient in her missions, in a way that made her stand head and shoulders above the rest of the Chaste's members.

But then Stick assigned her Matthew Murdock. 

From the outset she knew it wasn't her typical mission, because Stick hadn't ordered her to kill anyone. And sure, Stick hadn't said outright that Elektra had to sleep with Matthew either, but really he hadn't needed to - especially when Elektra had found herself falling for Matthew, hard.

And now, here they were, in Matthew's college dorm, spent and aching from their second round of lovemaking - the first being in the boxing ring Matthew used to frequent as a child. When they had reached the dorm, she'd laughed openly at him when he insisted on putting a sock on the door, even though his shaggy-haired roommate had already told him he was away visiting his parents.

(She'd stopped laughing, though, when he'd back-kicked the door shut and pressed her up against it and kissed her so hard it left her breathless.)

But it was morning now, the light streaming through the gap in the curtains. Elektra's eyes followed the path the narrow beam of sunlight made, turning on her side, and she found Matthew was sitting up, having pulled on some pyjama pants but still without a shirt. His head was ever so slightly bowed forward, and in the light she caught sight of the smattering of stubble on his jaw.

It was hard not to admire him - there was something beautiful, in the soft kind of way that Elektra hadn't thought was real, in the curve in his cheek, the way his brow was furrowed in concentration, in the way he slowly, deliberately exhaled. It was like - goddamn it, she couldn’t even believe she was  _ thinking  _ this - like Matthew was emanating light from within. And that made Elektra's breath catch in her throat.

Of all people, she never thought this would happen to her. Elektra had always looked at those lovelorn in disdain, not understanding when people wrote poetry, songs, novels, about this far-fetched emotion she had had yet to feel. But being with Matthew now - it was like a switch had flicked in her head. Like suddenly it all made sense.

Yet it wasn't just the gleaming sun kissing his cheeks and caressing his face that made her see him differently. It was more than that. Matthew had practically bared his soul to her last night. He’d opened up to her and given himself to her in every sense of the word - been vulnerable in a way she hadn't expected. And now, Elektra did not for the life of her know what to do with that, because the mere thoughts racing through her mind felt dangerously like the very love she had been so dismissive of before.

Looking at him now, she wasn't sure what he was doing - he seemed to be steeling himself, trying to work up the courage to do something. She just didn't know what - not until he blessed himself, put his hands together and started murmuring under his breath - and even then, she didn't recognise the words for what they were immediately.

“Dear Lord, help me remember what a difference it makes when I make time with You a priority in my morning. Awaken me in body and spirit each day with a desire to meet with You and to hear You speak words of affirmation, assurance and wisdom over my heart as I prepare to go into my day. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” He blessed himself again, two fingers touching his forehead and chest and shoulders. Then he sighed deeply, before he whispered the final word in the prayer: “Amen.”

And Elektra didn't even realise she was holding her breath until she suddenly found the need to let it out, and that was enough to give her away.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Matthew said softly without turning around.

“Hey,” Elektra replied with a smile.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you.”

“It's okay.” Elektra paused for a moment, then said, “I didn't know you were the religious type.”

That was a lie. Stick had briefed her thoroughly beforehand, and Elektra probably knew Matthew's life story better than he did.

Almost of its own accord, Matthew's hand went up to touch the crucifix around his neck.

“I'm not always a good Catholic,” he admitted. “Some days… I wonder what the point of all this is.”

“What do you mean?”

“The guilt, the penance, the self-punishment - and doing it all shrouded in ritual and candles and holy water like that makes it all okay.” But then he stopped short, as if he had just recognised the bitterness in his voice. “Sorry. I didn't mean to get all philosophical on you first thing in the morning.”

Elektra just laughed, reaching forward, her fingers grazing against his as she felt the cross too. “That's all right.”

“I guess that means you don't believe in a higher power, then?”

“You say that like it's a given.”

“For me it is,” Matthew countered.

“But you just said -”

“I said I'm not always a good Catholic. That I don’t know what the point of prayer is all the time. That I can get angry at God. But that doesn't mean I don't believe He's up there watching me.”

“How can you be so sure?” Elektra asked quietly.

To her surprise he chuckled. “I will let you know if I ever have a proper answer to that.”

It was then that she said slowly, “In answer to your question… I guess, maybe there is a God. Maybe there isn't. To be honest, I don’t really care either way. But if there is - in my book, He seems like a bit of a bastard.”

Elektra expected him to flinch at that, or otherwise react, and she was surprised to see that other than a slight twitching in the corner of his mouth, Matthew said and did nothing.

“What makes you say that?” he said finally.

“Last night… you said you lost your dad,” said Elektra, “that he was killed by criminals. And I doubt that's the only injustice that's happened to you.”

Matthew nodded. “Yeah, there are way too many sequels to that sob story.”

“It's not a sob story,” Elektra said firmly. “It's your life. It’s not been an easy one. And you've been dealt far too many shitty hands. It makes me wonder if the person or being doing the dealing is doing it on purpose when you so clearly deserve better.”

“I have to say, I'm glad life isn't a card game because I wouldn't have stood a chance. Being blind and all.”

Elektra laughed. “True. But I wonder - if we're going to go with that analogy - why keep playing, giving Him the benefit of the doubt, Matthew, when you keep being dealt so badly?”

He shrugged. “I guess I just have faith that I'll get dealt the right cards eventually.”

After hesitating for a moment, Elektra reached out, so her hand was covering his. “Well, for what it’s worth - I may not be a believer, but that’s something I’d pray for. For you to be happy.”

And Matthew smiled now. “See? That’s a miracle right there.” Their fingers laced together as he leaned in to kiss her forehead, then her nose and her lips. There was something so  _ tender _ about it all - the kind of gentle earnestness that Elektra knew instinctively that she didn’t deserve.

“I'm glad you're here,” Matthew blurted out, almost before he seemed to realise he had done so. His hand dropped to his side.

“I'm glad too. Mostly because this futon is a wonder.” Matthew chuckled as well. 

“It's only started to be. Before last night it was always so - stiff and new.”

“Well, then, I'm glad you broke it in,” Elektra said with a smile. She hesitated, then said, “Can I ask you a question? It's possible it might be too personal -”

She was surprised when she felt his lips brush against her cheek, even more so when he pulled away slightly and Elektra caught sight of the slow smile forming on his face. “Sweetie, I think we got plenty personal.”

That helped a bit - him making her smile, distracting her from what was really on her mind. “True.” She leaned over her side of the bed so she could grab Matthew's discarded t-shirt, putting it on.

“I hope that was my shirt,” he said with a grin.

“You  _ know _ it was,” she teased back. He shrugged at that, letting out a tiny sigh when she put her arms around his bare waist from behind, burying her nose in his shoulder.

“You can ask, you know.”

She didn't need to be told twice. “Have you ever been in love?” The words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop herself, and his sharp intake of breath already made her regret asking.

“Have you?” he countered. And for what felt like the hundredth time so far, again, Elektra was thrown, caught off guard, without an answer. Damn Matthew Murdock and his never-ending ability to get under her skin.

“I didn't even think it was possible,” she admitted. “I… didn't think I was built for that, to be honest.” Then she shifted a little, reaching out so her finger was under his chin and she turned his head towards her. “Good job deflecting that question, by the way. Nicely done, Matthew.”

At first he didn't answer, just kissed her gently. Then he said quietly, “I have, Elektra. Been in love, that is.”

“How did it end?”

“It hasn't,” he replied firmly without hesitation, as he leaned his forehead against hers, and Elektra knew that Matthew could have gone on, said more. His lips were parted, the words that Elektra had all but asked him to say on his tongue, but she couldn't let him say it. And it wasn't only because it pained her to see him wear his heart so unashamedly on his sleeve; no, it also pained her when she realised that what she wanted more than anything was to do the same in return.

But she had her mission.  _ Elektra _ was meant to be the distraction for Matthew, not the other way around.

So she lost herself in him instead, and he in her. And she shouldn’t have, she really shouldn’t have, but as she buried her face in the crook of his neck, she found herself mouthing the words she had stopped him from saying into his skin.

**Author's Note:**

> That's it! I would loooooove to hear your thoughts on this fic especially because I am uber late to the party for this fandom and honestly I'm still not 100% sure how this turned out. 
> 
> Thanks very much for reading and have a wonderful day :)


End file.
